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THE THREE DAYS' 



BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA, 



23d, 24th, 25th November. 1863. 



UNOFFICIAL DISPATCH FROM GENERAL MEIGS, 



QCAKTERMASTEEGEXERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, 



HON. E. M. STANTON, SECRETARY OF WAR. 



ACCOMPANIED BY 

A PLAN OF THE BATTLE, FURBISHED BY THE U. S. 
COAST SURVEY OFFICE. 



NEW Y R K : 

PRESENTED TO THE U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION 

By Julius Biex and TVm. M. Franklin. 

1864 



THE THREE DAYS' 

BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA, 






23d, 24th, 25th November, 1863, 

UNOFFICIAL DISPATCH FROM GENERAL MEIGS, 

QUABTERMASTEr.-GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES. 



HON. E. M. STANTON, SECRETARY OF WAR. 




ACCOMPANIED BT 

A PLAN OF THE BATTLE, FURNISHED BY THE U. S. 
COAST SURVEY OFFICE. 



NEW Y O E K : 

PRESENTED TO THE U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION 

By Julius Bien and "Wm. M. Franklin. 

1864 



V 




BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. 



TELEGRAPHIC DISPATCH. 



Head-Quarters, U. S. Quartermaster's Department, 
In the Field, 
Chattanooga, Tenn., November 26, 18G3. 

Hon. E. M. Stantom", 

Secretary of War, Washington, D. 0. 

Sir: On the 23d, at 11^ A. m., General Grant ordered a 
demonstration against Mission Ridge, to develop the force 
holding it. The troops marched out, formed in order, ad- 
vanced in line of battle, as if on parade. The rebels watched 
the formation and movement from their picket lines and 
rifle-pits, and from the summits of Mission Ridge, five hun- 
dred feet above us, and thought it was a review and drill, 
so openly, so deliberately, so regularly was it all done. 

As the line advanced, preceded by skirmishers, and at 
2 p. m., reached our picket lines, they opened a rattling vol- 
ley upon the rebel picket--, which replied and ran into their 



advanced line of rifle-pits. After them went our skirmish- 
ers, and into them, along the centre of the line of twenty- 
five thousand troops, which General Thomas had so quickly- 
displayed. 

Until we opened fire, prisoners assert that they thought 
the whole movement was a review and general drill, and 
then it was too late to send to their camps for re-enforce- 
ments, and they wei - e ovenvhelmed by force of numbers. 
It was a surprise in open daylight. 

At 3 p. M., the important advanced position of " Orchard 
Knob" and the lines right and left were in our possession, 
and arrangements were ordered for holding them during the 
night. 

The next day at daylight, General Sherman had five 
thousand men across the Tenuessee, established on its south 
bank, and commenced the construction of a pontoon bridge 
about six miles above Chattanooga. 

The rebel steamer "Dunbar," repaired at the right mo- 
ment, rendered effective aid in this crossing, ferrying over 
some six thousand men. 

By nightfall, General Sherman had seized the extremity 
of Mission Ridge nearest the river, and was intrenching 
himself. 

General Howard, with a brigade, opened communication 
with him from Chattanooga on the south side of the river. 



Skirmishing and cannonading continued all day on the left 
and centre. General Hooker scaled the slopes of Lookout 
Mountain from the valley of Lookout Creek, drove the 
rebels around the point, captured some two thousand prison- 
ers, and established himself high up the mountain side, in 
full view of Chattanooga. This raised the blockade, and 
our steamers were ordered from Bridgeport to Chattanooga. 
They had run only to Kelly's Ferry, whence ten miles 
of hauling over mountain roads and twice crossing the Ten- 
nessee on pontoon bridges brought us our supplies. 

All night the point of Mission Ridge, on the extreme left, 
and the side of Lookout Mountain, on the extreme right, 
blazed with the camp fires of loyal troops. The day had 
been one of driving mists and rains, and much of Hooker's 
battle was fought above the clouds, which concealed him from 
our view, but from which his musketry was heard. 

At nightfall the sky cleared, and the full moon, the " hun- 
ter's moon," shone upon the beautiful scene. 

Till 1 A. m., twinkling sparks upon the mountain side 
showed that picket skirmishing was still going on ; then it 
ceased. 

A brigade sent from Chattanooga crossed Chattanooga 
Creek, and opened communication with Hooker soon after 
nightfall. 

General Grant's head-quarters during the afternoon of the 



6 

23d and the day of the 24th were in Wood's redoubt, except 
when in the course of the day we rode along the advanced 
lines, visiting the head-quarters of the several commanders 
in Chattanooga valley. 

At daylight on the 25th, the stars and stripes were dis- 
cerned on the peak of Lookout. The rebels had evacuated 
the mountain. Hooker moved to descend the mountain, 
and, striking Mission Ridge at the Rossville Gap, to sweep 
it on both sides and on its summit. 

The rebel troops were seen, as soon as it was light enough, 
streaming, by regiments and brigades, along the narrow 
summit of Mission Ridge, either concentrating on their right 
to overwhelm Sherman, or marching for the railroad and 
raising the siege. They had evacuated the valley of Chatta- 
nooga; would they abandon that of the Chickamauga? 

The 30-pounders and 44-inch rifles of Wood's redoubt 
opened on Mission Ridge. Orchard Knob sent its compli- 
ments to the ridge, which with rifled Parrotts answered, 
and the cannonade thus commenced continued all day. Shot 
and shell screamed from Orchard Knob to Mission Ridge, 
from Mission Ridge to Orchard Knob, and from Wood's 
redoubt, over the heads of General Grant and General 
Thomas and their staffs, who were with us in this favorable 
.position, whence the whole could be seen as in an amphi- 
theatre. 



Head-quarters were under fire all day long. Cannonading 
and musketry were heard from General Sherman. Howard 
marched the Eleventh Corps to join him. 

Thomas sent out skirmishers, who. drove in the rehel 
pickets, and even shook them in their intrenchments at the 
foot of Mission Ridge. 

Sherman sent an assault against Bragg's right, intrenched 
on a high knob, next to that on which Sherman himself lay 
fortified. 

The assault was gallantly made, reached the edge of the 
crest, held its ground for what seemed to me an hour, hut 
was then bloodily repulsed by reserves. 

A general advance was ordered, and a strong line of skir- 
mishers, followed by a deployed line of battle, some two 
miles in length, at the signal of six cannon-shots from the 
head-quarters on Orchard Knob, moved rapidly and orderly 
forward. 

The rebel pickets discharged their muskets and ran into 
their rifle-pits ; our skirmishers followed on their heels ; the 
line of battle was not far behind; and we saw the gray 
rebels swarm out of the long line of rifle-pits in numbers 
which surprised us, and spread over the base of the hill. A 
few turned and fired their pieces, but the greater number 
collected into the various roads which creep obliquely up 
its steep face, and went on to the top. Some regiments 



pressed on and began to swarm up the steep sides of the 
ridge. Here and there a color was advanced beyoud.the line. 
The attempt appeared most dangerous; but the advance 
was supported, and the whole line ordered to storm the 
heights, upon which not less than forty pieces of artillery, 
and no one knew how many muskets, stood ready to slaugh- 
ter the assailants. 

With cheers answering to cheers, the men swarmed up- 
wards. They gathered to the lines of least difficult ascent, 
and the line was broken. Color after color was planted on 
the summit, while musketry and cannon vomited their 
thunder upon them. A well-directed shot from Orchard 
Knob exploded a rebel caisson on the summit. A gun was 
seen galloping to the right, its driver lashing his horses. A 
party of our soldiers intercepted him, and the gun was cap- 
tured with cheers. 

A fierce musketry fight broke out to the left where, be- 
tween Thomas and Sherman, a mile or two of the ridge was 
still occupied by the rebels. Bragg left the house in which 
he had held his head-quarters, and rode to the rear, as our 
troops crowned the hill on each side of him. 

General Grant proceeded to the summit, aud then only 
did Ave know its height. 

Some of the captured artillery was put into position, ar- 
tillerists were sent for to work the guns, caissons were 



9 

searched for ammunition. The rebel log breastworks were 
torn to pieces and carried to the other side of the ridge, and 
used in forming barricades across it. A strong line of in- 
fantry was formed in the rear of Baird's line, hotly engaged 
in a musketry contest Avith the rebels to the left, and a secure 
lodgment was soon effected. 

The other assaxilt to the right of our centre gained the 
summit, and the rebels threw down their arms and fled. 
Hooker coming in from Rossville swept the right of the 
ridge and captured many prisoners. 

Bragg' s remaining troops left eaidy in the night, and the 
battle of Chattanooga, after three days of manoeuvring and 
fighting, was won. The strength of the rebellion in the 
centre was broken ; Burnside relieved from danger in East 
Tennessee ; Kentucky and Tennessee redeemed ; Georgia 
and the Southeast threatened in the rear, and another victory 
added to the chaplet of Unconditional Surrender Grant. 

To-night the estimate of captures is several thousand 
prisoners and thirty pieces of artillery. Loss for so great a 
victory not severe. Bragg is firing the railroad as he re- 
treats towards Dalton ; Sherman is in hot pursuit. 

To-day I visited the battle-field, which extends for six 
miles along Mission Ridge, and for several miles on Look- 
out Mountain. 

Probably no so well-directed, so well-ordered a battle has 



10 

been delivered during the war. But one assault was re- 
pulsed ; but that assault, by calling to that point the re- 
serves, prevented their repulsing any of the others. 

A few days since, Bragg sent to General Grant a flag of 
truce to advise him. that it would be prudent to remove any 
non-combatants who might be still in Chattanooga. No_ 
reply has been returned, but, the combatants having been 
removed from this vicinity, it is probable that the non-com- 
batants can remain without imprudence. 

May I suggest that your visit to Louisville, with the 
measures there inaugurated, have done the cause in this 
quarter much good. It would be well to visit us here, and 
also for the President to review an army which has done 
so much for the country, and which has not yet seen his 

face. 

(Signed) M. C. Meigs, 

Quartermaster- Genera f . 




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